It’s the sign of a good show when despite the obvious nature of the storyline, the turns still surprise you.

FlashForward’s main story line is akin to being told the train you’re on will reach the end of the line and drop into an abyss in six hours.  It doesn’t matter what scenery you see along the way or what people you meet during your trip, your mind will constantly focus on the end.  Despite this, the show continues to surprise with each discovery, each interaction, each reveal.

At least so far.

“White to Play” brought something the pilot did not; humor.  In light of the desperate mental states and cataclysmic events, the FBI agents, especially Agent Wedeck, are not above a bit of humor.  Whether it’s deliberate or an accidental turn of phrase, the show was lighter this time; almost as if the world is flexing a defensive muscle.

The episode was not without tension.  Agent’s Benford and Noh investigate a name from Mark’s board, a D. Gibbons.  They find a woman named Di Di Gibbons who recalls her flash forward was her arguing with someone on the phone about credit cards and the word “pigeon.”  Agent Hawk finds a Pigeon, Utah where Di Di’s stolen card got a hit on a bus ticket.  They meet the local sheriff who, like Demetri Noh, didn’t have a flash forward.  The bus ticket lead didn’t pan out, but they find a nearby doll factory that’s been abandoned recently.  A burned doll head is on Mark’s board so they check it out.  Yes there are creepy doll heads and bodies everywhere.

On the way up the stairs they trip an alarm warning the occupant of the upper office.  It’s a man surrounded by computers who says “He who foresees calamity suffers them twice over.”  It’s a quote from Beilby Porteus, an abolitionist Bishop from London in the 18th century and is a lesser known but significantly important church reformist.  What he has to do with global blackouts is yet to be seen.  I don’t imagine the quote was thrown out there lightly and I figure it’s going to be important.

The computer guy ends up torching his own stuff and blown the doll factory to bits.  The sheriff ends up getting shot and killed in the raid, confirming to Demetri Noh and the viewers that no flashforward equals dead before the flashforward date.

We’re introduced to Anastasia Markham, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.  She will undoubtedly play the governmental foil as this branch of the FBI uses money to roll around making websites and chasing down random nutcases.

Olivia finally meets Dillon’s dad, Lloyd Simcoe.  She freaks out a little and she and Mark have a discussion about it and how she would never be unfaithful.  They also discuss the fact that Charlie hasn’t talked about her flashforward.  They ask but she doesn’t want to talk about it, she does however recognize the little boy Dillon and nearly falls to pieces seeing he’s hurt.  Mark has still not told Olivia about his vision of heavy drinking, something I find a bit hard to swallow.  The main character seems perfectly written as a sanctimonious husband, but so far he’s the only one with a flaw.  It’s not like we need more flawed characters, but if this is going to be an ensemble cast, we’ll need more reality and less two dimensional cardboard cutouts of what characters should be.

Just when we think we know how predictable the show will be as Mark and his friends uncover each little photo and post card on the Mosaic board, Charlie says to Mark, “D. Gibbons” is a bad person.

FlashForward has a limited shelf life but can still take years to tell the tale.  Lost occurred over just a couple months and we’re going on five years.  But with the latter, we didn’t know what was going to happen.  In FlashForward, we discover the end game with each new posting to the Mosaic message board and what we’re left with is the hope that Mark, Olivia, Lloyd, Charlie and Demetri find a way to prevent the future from happening to them.  “White to Play” is a bit slow on the story, a little flat with the characters but just fine on the action.  Olivia and Mark seem to be already teetering on the edge of separation as they snap at each other more than they love each other and it’s hard to watch.  As of yet, the only character I have any emotional attachment to is Agent Noh because he struggles with the fact that he may not be around in six months.

Question is, will the show?  The writing is the weak link.  They have the acting talent, we need them to be believable and that comes from the words falling out of their doubting, troubled and American accent sporting mouths.

Three out of five broken clocks.